NEW YORK: Fueled by immigration, America's Hindu population has reached 2.23 million, an increase of about one million or 85.8 percent since 2007, making Hinduism the fourth-largest faith, according to estimates based on wide-ranging study of religions in the nation. The proportion of Hindus in the U.S. population rose from 0.4 percent in 2007 to 0.7 percent last year, according to the Pew Research Center's

"Religious Landscape Study" published. The study only gave the percentage shares of Hindus in the population, rather than numbers, but calculations by IANS using the population proportions in the report and census projections showed that the number of Hindus rose from 1.2 million in 2007 out of a total U.S. population of 301.2 million that year to 2.23 million in 2014 in a population of 318.88 million. This amounts to an increase of 1.03 million or 85.8 percent in the Hindu population during the seven-year period.Pew said that it may have underestimated the size of the Hindu population.An earlier report from Pew on the future of world religions in April said that by 2050, Hindus would make up 1.2 percent of the U.S. population and number 4.78 million. This would make the U.S. Hindu population the fifth largest in the world.Looking at the socio-economic profile of Hindus, the new Pew report released said they had the highest education and income levels of all religious groups in the U.S.: 36 percent of the Hindus said their annual family income exceeded $100,000, compared with 19 percent of the overall population. And 77 percent of Hindus have a bachelor's degree compared to 27 percent of all adults and 48 percent of the Hindus have a post-graduate degree.